Magnetic Island is an island just off from Townsville, only accessible via ferry. It's predominately made up of National Park yet there's a lot of resorts on the island too. Before heading over I stayed a night in Townsville. For anyone considering visiting; DON'T BOTHER! There's literally nothing to do, the hostel I stayed at was full of people who didn't speak and the owners were miserable as hell. I went for a walk down the front and it was full of joggers, proof that there's nothing else to do as they spend all their time doing exercise!
The ferry over to Maggie took about half an hour and on my first day I went to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and got to hold a Koala! The pictures are terrible but oh well. I also got to hold a baby crocodile, feed a Cockatoo and feed some Parakeets. The latter were actually pretty vicious and I ended up with scratches all over my arms. After quite a busy day I tried to get an early night. Not that I got much sleep as my room mates decided to have a big argument that started at midnight and seemed to last forever. I stayed at the Base hostel (again) which had horrible rooms which were effectively cabins. There were cobwebs everywhere, the beds were horrible and old and there was a severe problem with ants. The actual location was lovely and the bar area was great it was just let down by the rooms. However the second day a big group of us went for a walk in the National park in the North of the Island and on our way back we stopped off and fed some wild rock wallabies. It was a beautiful day and the rock wallabies were adorable; they were really curious and one of them even had a joey! That night was Ladies Night at the bar and some of the guys really got into it - I now have a rip in one of my dresses after I let one of them borrow it!
I didn't really spend long on Maggie, I'd love to go back and explore it properly! There's so much I didn't get to see or do; you can hire scooters or open top Barbie cars and explore the Island which would have been really fun.
Maggie was my penultimate stop and next was on to Cairns!
xxx
